Pages

March 26, 2013

What's your story?

As a public relations communicator, one of my favorite things to do is to tell stories. Many of those stories revolve around my volunteer passion: Optimist Clubs. I enjoy learning about and sharing the many different projects that Optimist Clubs perform in their communities around the world. The projects vary from spelling bees to sports programs and all the way to raising money to fund research at Johns Hopkins University to eradicate childhood cancer.

Optimist Clubs take on big projects and they take on small tasks. They fill local needs and dream big dreams and most create a path to accomplish what means most to the people involved. But something is true no matter the size of the Optimist Club or the community; Optimist Clubs do not succeed in a vacuum. If club members and leaders are not talking about their projects, purpose and passion, nothing gets done.

This phenomenon of telling stories about what we are doing in our Optimist Clubs is the foundation of word of mouth marketing. Your club projects should not be a secret and neither should your meetings. If people are to join us, they have to know more about what it means to be a part of the group. They need to know specifics like when and where the club meets and if there are expectations (like buying a meal) at the meetings. Most of all, they need to know the purposes of the organization and how they can help.

We come to our organizations with many individual talents. We join because we see that our talents and interests align with the organization. We stay involved because we like the people that volunteer with us as work together to make a difference. We are emotionally rewarded with fellowship, friendship and the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing social good.

Most people want all of those emotional rewards in their lives. Don't deny them the opportunity to join your Optimist Club. Tell your Optimist Club story to someone today, tell it again tomorrow, and the day after that. Your enthusiasm will inspire others to get involved and you'll share awareness of the great things that your Optimist Club does in your community every day. Friends, let me tell you, those are good stories to tell.

Disclosure: I am a member of an Optimist Club; however, this site is privately held and is not supported or maintained by an Optimist Club or Optimist International. Opinions expressed here belong solely to the author of the post or blog .